Wednesday, 31 May 2017

It's a boat... It's a plane. It's a...... moose??!! Yes, and according to the The Weather Network, Moose are excellent swimmers. This one was spotted swimming across a lake in Magnetawan, Ontario - like a boss!...

Tuesday, 23 May 2017

So much for calling the police on a noise complaint. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em? ...

The police were called to a birthday party in Mississauga to investigate a band playing too loudly. The teenage members of Vinyl Ambush expected to get shut down, but to their surprise, one of the officers sat down at the drums and proved he had some musical chops of his own. - thestar

(Video snapshot)

Vinyl Ambush played a private event last night and it wasn't long before the Peel Police showed up. We thought the show was over but much to everyone's delight, they joined in for an incredible jam session. They were so impressed by the band instead of putting a stop to the show they wanted to join in then offered the band words of wisdom. Talk about community outreach. Many thanks to Peel Region Police for making it such a fun and memorable night for the Band and everyone there. You guys ROCK!

That's one huge sea lion - and it all happened so fast! The sea lion dragged a young girl into the waters at the Steveston Fisherman's Wharf in Richmond, B.C.
Thankfully, as you'll see, the little girl was rescued immediately.

Initially, after watching the video, we were curious as to why the sea lion showed an interest in the girl but discovered later (after reading the CBC news article), that it probably thought her dress was food!
According to SFU student Michael Fujiwara, the guy who captured it on video, the family began feeding it bread crumbs as the young girl got closer to the edge of the dock.

Andrew Trites, the director of UBC's Marine Mammal Research Unit, does not blame the animal for its behaviour in the video, according to another CBC news article:

"My first reaction to the video is just how stupid some people can be to not treat wildlife with proper respect," he said. "This was a male California sea lion. They are huge animals. They are not circus performers. They're not trained to be next to people."

Friday, 12 May 2017

Took a trip down to the ol' port the other day to personally check out the flooding and it was exactly as we've been witnessing in the many photos online. It was a clear day, the sun was shining brightly - from the beach you could see Toronto in the distance (as you'll see in some of the photos) but the wind was very cold. As you'll also see, despite the flooding, work still goes on, on the pavilion...

Monday, 8 May 2017

An undercover agent perhaps? Maybe not - but they seem to be everywhere in Toronto - on the subway, in a baby stroller and let's not even talk about the one captured doing the tightrope walk across some power lines back in 2013!

This latest one made headlines when he was spotted peeking out from the ceiling, checking out the passengers below in the baggage claim section at Toronto Pearson International Airport,...

Toronto Pearson International Airport has a new baggage handler. Taken at Terminal 3 on May 5, 2017.

Monday, 1 May 2017

They didn't call him the 'Swiss Machine' for nothing...
Famed rock climber and mountaineer, Ueli Steck, won two Piolet d'Or awards, in 2009 and 2014. He was also famous for his speed records on the North Face trilogy in the Alps.

Steck died on April 30, 2017, while acclimatizing for an attempt of the Hornbein route on the West Ridge of Everest without supplemental oxygen. This route had been climbed only few times the last of which was in 1991. His plan was to then proceed with a traverse to the peak of Lhotse, the world's fourth highest mountain. This combination had not been achieved. During a preparatory climb on Nuptse, a smaller peak near Everest, Steck fell about 1000m.

His death was the first casualty of the Everest climbing season.

“Failure for me would be to die and not come home.” - Ueli Steck

Remembering Ueli Steck...

It was reported that back in April 2013, Steck and two other mountaineers, Simone Moro and Jonathan Griffith, were involved in an altercation with local Sherpas while on the west face of Mount Everest - so much so that it became an international media event. This led me to ask, 'Who are these Sherpas anyways?' Well, they are an ethnic group from the most mountainous region of Nepal, the Himalayas and they climb for a living...

WHY SHERPAS CLIMB

Although the climbing industry has taken a heavy toll on Sherpa families, it has also brought income and opportunity. Sherpas talk about why they risk such danger—such as the avalanche on Mount Everest that killed 16 expedition workers on April 18, 2014—to help climbers summit difficult peaks.